After getting our rental car and stuffing it with camping gear and supplies, Dona and I headed back to Penduka, the women's cooperative for disadvantaged women in Katatura to the north of Windhoek proper. We wanted to pick up a few gifts for people at home.
We had visited Penduka during our World Teach training week, so we didn't need the tour; we just wanted to stop by the shop and pick up a few things.
We left Penduka in the afternoon, and headed north to Joris and Liz Komens' place. We wanted to touch base with Joris about the "off the net" hardware and software he had talked about at the World Teach IT Conference. He had also indicated their place was bird friendly, and we thought we might see some cool birds there.
Our original plan had been to make it up to the Waterberg Plateau for the night, but it didn't look like that was going to happen. I figured we'd just camp by the side of the road if necessary.
When we got to Joris and Liz's place, they weren't around. We had contacted them just before heading out so we knew they were somewhere... It turned out someone had started a wildfire on the edge of their property and they were out fighting it. If I had known that I would have headed that direction to help. We had seen the smoke on the way in, but thought it was just the usual undeveloped country rural burning that one often sees.
Joris and Liz have quite an array of birds they are rehabilitating, so we took the self-guided tour. It was cool!
There were quite a few owls. The African Scops Owls looked really weird! The were so weird they looked fake.
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| Spotted Eagle Owl | Verreaux's Eagle Owl | Southern White Faced Owl | |
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| African Scops Owl |
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| Xxx | Yellow Billed Kite | Augur Buzzard | |
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| Lanner Falcon | Rock Kestrel | |
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| Pygmy Falcon | Peregrine Falcon | |
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| Gabar Goshawk | Shikra Little Banded Goshawk |
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| White Backed Vulture | ||
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| Xxx Tawney Eagle | Black Chested Snake Eagle | |
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| Wahlbergs Eagle | African Hawk Eagle | ||
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| Brown Snake Eagle |
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| Verreaux's Eagle | ||
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| Cape Crow | |
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| African Grey Parrot | Xxx Parrot | |
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| Xxx Pigeon |
We found this huge locust. Man, I'm glad we don't have those here in Montana. I've read about how we used to have some, and they may or may not be extinct. Apparently conditions have to be just right for the population to explode and wreck havoc. There is a good article in the Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks "Montana Outdoors" magazine about them; the pdf version has a map showing the estimated coverage of the largest swarm. At one time they figured there was a swarm that covered the entire plains of North America! Yikes!
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| Locust |
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| Grey Go Away Bird | Monteiros Hornbill | Xxx Dove |
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| Black Faced Waxbill | |||
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| Crimson Breasted Shrike |
We stayed out looking for birds until sunset, then had a nice evening with Joris and Liz. The next morning we continued on towards Waterberg National Park.
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| Sunset in the Namibian Hills |
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This page last updated on 2015-01-31.
